The leftward and other blatherings of Span (now with Snaps!)

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

will the Maori Party be left III

Noticed today - Tariana Turia voting with National and Act against the Aquaculture Bills, which the Greens supported.

A few people I've spoken to who were quite pro-Maori Party are really concerned after Turia's vote against the CUB.

It all seems a bit incoherent, given their stance on tertiary ed. The policy announcements in February can't come a moment too soon.

3 comments:

Jules said...

Can someone fedex them a shovel? I'm afraid a hole large enough won't fit into one of those tiny bags!

Span said...

I guess there's also the worry that there will be a big gap between theory and practice, ie policy and votes in the House. So far there has certainly been a mismatch between Turia's voting and what you would have expected given noises from some of those who I know who are involved in the Maori Party.

stephen said...

Can't say I'm surprised.

Left wingers generally have believed in Maori causes, perhaps more so than right wingers, and it is very tempting to assume that the love is reciprocated. But I would bet that Maori opinion probably doesn't break down into left and right very well, and to the extent that it does, the right-wing Maori may be a lot more numerous than you think. The relative prominence of Maori in leftwing politics might reflect a more hospitable environment than anything else.

After all, haven't most of the "waka jumpers" of the last decade taken a step to the right?